The Selling of 5 Americans...
1977
Vito Acconci
American, 1940-2017
Contemporary Art
TVito Acconci’s artworks of the 1960s and 1970s explore the often unspoken physical, gendered, sexual, and emotional relationships between artist and viewer. For example, in 1969’s Following Piece, he followed randomly selected passersby in New York City, in order to unsettle traditional boundaries of propriety and power.
The prints on view question two of the most prevalent types of power in the United States: the insistence on, and celebration of, gun ownership, as seen in Bite the Bullet: Slow Guns for Quick Sale (To Be Etched on Your American Mind), and the definitions of citizenship, suggested in The Selling of 5 Americans and a Place for One World Citizen. Acconci’s sly critiques place in stark relief the realities of different forms of violence and power at the core of American identity.
The prints on view question two of the most prevalent types of power in the United States: the insistence on, and celebration of, gun ownership, as seen in Bite the Bullet: Slow Guns for Quick Sale (To Be Etched on Your American Mind), and the definitions of citizenship, suggested in The Selling of 5 Americans and a Place for One World Citizen. Acconci’s sly critiques place in stark relief the realities of different forms of violence and power at the core of American identity.
- Maker/Artist
- Acconci, Vito
- Classification
- Formatted Medium
- Photo-etching and aquatint on paper
- Medium
- photo-etching, aquatint, paper
- Dimensions
- 29 3/4 x 41 3/4in. (75.6 x 106cm)
- Inscribed
- Dated and titled in graphite, lower margin Blind Stamp in lower right: "Crown Point Press/ Doris Simmelink" Printed by Doris Simmelink; Published by Crown Point Press
- Departments
- Contemporary Art
- Accession Number
- 1991.215.1
- Credit Line
- Gift of Nancy Genn
- Rights Statement
- © artist or artist's estate
- Museum Location
- This item is not on view
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